“May I present my humble abode, the Clearing of Whispering Secrets.” He whirled his staff in the air, and the bushes parted to reveal a small clearing with a cottage in the center of it. Reina blinked in the unexpected sunlight pouring in and then gasped.
Harpies perched on the roof, cackling at them, while more fluttered down from the sky. The entire floor of the clearing was covered with snakewolves. At the sound of the parting bushes the snakewolves turned, their gleaming red eyes fixing on the three of them. They hissed, tongues flickering out, and the harpies in the air cackled.
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Chapter Seven: The Clearing of Whispering Secrets
The Gold Wizard’s jaw dropped, and they all stared at each other for a moment that stretched out unbearably long. Finally the snakewolves charged forward. The Gold Wizard drew back his staff, and the bushes closed up in front of them. He yanked Reina and Austyn around.
“This way!”
He yanked them back through the bushes and around the wall of vegetation, all three stumbling, before stopping so abruptly he jerked Reina’s arm. She hissed at the pain. The Gold Wizard glanced around wildly. Then he stamped his staff down hard on the ground.
Reina opened her mouth to tell him they needed to keep running. She heard the howls of the snakewolves and the rustling of the bushes—they would break through at any moment. But before she could get the worlds out, a black hole opened in the ground right in front of the Gold Wizard’s feet, and she could only gape in amazement.
“Down, quick!” he ordered.
Released from her shock, Reina grabbed Austyn and stumbled forward. She found steps leading down and climbed into blackness. When she reached the bottom, she turned to see the Gold Wizard run down behind her. He hit the ground with his staff again, and the hole closed up, leaving them in complete darkness.
Austyn started breathing faster; his hand squeezed hers so hard it hurt.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Shhh,” hissed the Gold Wizard.
They heard the pattering of feet above them and the howls of the snakewolves. Reina drew Austyn closer to her and wrenched her hand free from his, to put it around him and relieve the pain. It seemed like forever until silence came again, and she could only hear their breathing. A light appeared, and Reina blinked several times. The end of the Gold Wizard’s staff glowed.
“Okay,” whispered the Gold Wizard. “It’s safe to proceed.”
Instead of opening the tunnel like Reina expected, he squeezed past them and started walking further down it.
“Where are we going?”
“Shh, keep it down,” he whispered. “This is my secret back door. We’re going to my house. We both need that medicine before the poison sets in.”
A million objections raced through Reina’s mind. Wasn’t the clearing full of snakewolves and harpies? How could they get to the Gold Wizard’s house safely? However, she didn’t want to stay down in this dark tunnel and die of the snakewolf poison either. She decided to wait and see how things played out for the moment.
They reached a wooden ladder with a trap door at the top. The Gold Wizard turned and signaled to them to keep silent; then he climbed the stairs, extinguished his magic light, and opened the door. It thumped open, the noise loud in the silence, and pale light filtered down past him into the tunnel. The Gold Wizard disappeared up through the trap door a moment before his head appeared again, a dark silhouette against the light.
“Come on up,” he whispered. “It’s safe.”
Reina led the way and emerged into a cottage. It must be the one at the center of the clearing. She looked behind her to make sure Austyn was all right and saw his grimy face as he climbed up after her. She turned back to the Gold Wizard. In the fading light, she glimpsed the dark circles around his eyes. His clothing was encrusted in blood, and he had a snakewolf bite on his left arm. Sweat plastered his dark hair to the side of his face, and the hint of a dark beard grew along his chin, making him look younger than ever.
“So long as we don’t make any loud noises or use magic, they won’t know we’re in here.”
Reina glanced at the window and saw the dark shapes of harpies flit across the sky. She nodded, hoping the Gold Wizard could take his own advice. She let her eyes wander around the cottage. A bed, the sheets messy, took up one end of the room, with a fireplace and table with dirty dishes stacked on it at the other end. Dirty laundry covered the floor, and Reina wrinkled her nose. It smelled stuffy.
Austyn slumped against the wall. Although exhausted, he looked unharmed. That in itself startled Reina, considering how scratched, bitten, and shredded she and the Gold Wizard were. It seemed something protected him. The medallion, perhaps? Whatever it was, she was thankful—she had worried about him so much on this journey. Perhaps as the Child Warrior, he really could make it through this adventure alive.
A clinking over by the fireplace made her look around to where the Gold Wizard stood at the table, mixing things. She hauled herself over, knocking dirty clothes off one of the chairs, and sat down to watch him use his herbs and flasks to create his medicine.
He handed her a wet rag. “Help me wash this wound on my arm.”
She did so, and he gave her some of the paste he’d made. He grimaced as she plastered the concoction on it.
“Now let’s look at yours.” He unwound the bandage on her leg. The red, puffy wound made her gasp in pain. While it looked terrible to her, the Gold Wizard nodded approvingly. “Good, good. It looks like we got rid of most of the poison. You should be fine. But you’d best drink the potion with me, just to be safe.”
He mixed some of the paste with more water and handed her the tin cup. The potion tasted bitter, but she choked it down. It was now so dark she could hardly make out the Gold Wizard’s features.
“Can’t light a fire,” he said softly. He pressed something into her hand. “It’s some dried meat—I’ll find better food in the morning. I’ll get some blankets.”
In the dark, Reina felt her way back to Austyn and found him already sound asleep on the floor. She didn’t wake him, but sat down next to him and ate the jerky. She heard several quiet thuds punctuated by whispered curses—the Gold Wizard feeling his way around, apparently—but eventually he brought her some blankets. Reina covered Austyn, then wrapped one around herself and fell asleep.
She opened her eyes. Sunlight danced across the eaves above her, and she blinked in confusion—this wasn’t home. She sat up and glanced around her, remembering where they were. The cottage looked different in the morning light. It was still a mess and smelled like overripe fruit, but it also seemed magical. Herbs hung from the ceiling in bunches, glittering in the sunlight, and one wall had a bookshelf with real books and a desk covered in parchment and quills. Strange items littered the floor and shelves, making her want to look everything over. The sound of water made her notice a little fountain by the front door, bubbling up water in a stone basin.
Austyn stirred next to her, ending her inspection of the house. His eyes fluttered open, and he smiled at her. “I’m hungry.”
“I’ll find you something,” she whispered back.
She glanced at the bed and saw the Gold Wizard still asleep. His wounded arm was flung out to one side, the bandage smudged with dark red-brown. His face still looked worn and dirty, and she decided to let him sleep. Standing up, she glanced out the window. Harpies circled far above, while a pack of snakewolves lounged in the shade of the dense bushes. They still watched the house. Dang, that means no chance of a fire and hot breakfast.
First she walked over to the fountain, too curious to leave it alone. Water did indeed bubble up of its own accord and was ice cold when she stuck her hand in it.
“Is it magic?” Austyn whispered, and she turned to find he had followed her.
“I think so.” Reina took a long drink, and then washed herself with a piece of soap sitting on the edge of the fountain, but decided against using the dirty rag that al
so lay there. She handed the soap to Austyn and went over to the cupboards on the wall by the fireplace to search for food. She managed to find more jerky as well as some apples. While Austyn ate, she stacked the dirty dishes in a pile at one end of the table. After that, she started picking up laundry and tossing it in a pile by the bed as an excuse to further explore the room.
Many things amazed her: the entire row of books, beautifully bound, on the top shelf by the desk; a drawing tacked to the wall of a young man who looked something like the Gold Wizard, but not quite; the bottles full of different-colored liquids lining another shelf in the kitchen area. A door that she thought was a closet revealed an indoor privy, which astonished her almost as much as the fountain by the door. Some of her finds scared her a bit. A human skull used as a paperweight made her shiver. And green fuzz grew on something that looked like it used to be half a loaf of bread. She gagged at the smell.
“Do you think we could look at the books?” Austyn whispered, running a finger across them.
“Better not.”
The Gold Wizard groaned, and Austyn jumped back from the shelf as if he’d been burnt. Reina came over and noticed, as the Gold Wizard struggled to sit, that he had dark purple streaks under both his eyes.
“Need more medicine,” he croaked. “Think it’s in my bloodstream. Help me up.”
She took his uninjured arm and helped him across the room to the one clear chair. He mixed more medicine and, after taking it, went back to bed. He did nothing but sleep and mix herbs for two days straight. Reina cleaned the house, scavenging up what food she could find and scrubbing the dishes in the water fountain, although the water numbed her hands if she stayed at it too long.
She let Austyn look at the books, and he seemed content to sit there for hours quietly examining each page, tracing the runes with one finger. While Reina shared his interest in learning to read, she didn’t see a point to looking at runes she couldn’t understand.
Once the Gold Wizard became well enough to sit up and talk, Reina cornered him on the big issue.
“What are we going to do next?”
The Gold Wizard ran his hand through his hair and glanced around the room, now clean and tidy. “What’d you do to my stuff?” He sounded miffed.
Reina glared at him. “I didn’t do anything. I just cleaned. You ought to try that more often.”
He snorted. “I liked my home fine the way it was.”
“Well, how about answering my question. We’re running out of cold food—we can’t stay here.”
He sighed. “I know. I … um … figure we needed to find the Green Wizard.” He blushed. “With this many of the Red Wizard’s monsters after us, I need help protecting Austyn long enough to train him to use the magic. The Green Wizard lives here in the forest. He’ll protect us long enough to get Austyn ready … I hope.”
He mumbled the last two words in a barely audible tone. Reina silently agreed with his worry. It seemed unlikely they’d stay safe long enough anywhere to actually get Austyn ready to face the Red Wizard. She glanced at Austyn, who watched the Gold Wizard with a worried gaze.
“What if I can’t learn it?” Austyn asked.
“Nonsense!” A bit of the Gold Wizard’s usual glib tone returned. “The magic you carry as the Warrior Child is unique to you alone. You can’t possibly fail; the magic is your birthright. And only this particular magic you have can defeat the Red Wizard.”
“Why?” Reina asked. The question had been bugging her for a long time. From what she’d seen, the Gold Wizard, perhaps, wasn’t a very good wizard, but surely one of the other wizards in the country had greater power. If they all got together, couldn’t they defeat the Red Wizard?
“Every wizard has two kinds of magic. First, some general skills all wizards have, and second, a special talent that he alone carries. The Red Wizard has a truly terrible and unique skill. He has a death magic that whispers to your soul and commands it to die. Even if you have every reason to live, this magic is so strong, it convinces your inner being to give up and die! Not even the most powerful wizard can defend himself against it.”
The Gold Wizard’s eyes watered, and he looked away.
“He killed someone you loved?” Reina asked tentatively.
The Gold Wizard wiped away his tears. “My father, the last Gold Wizard. He was so strong, a wonderful wizard; I can hardly believe that at a simple command by the Red Wizard, he dropped dead.” The wizard cleared his throat. “He had the talent of seeing the future. He gave me the prophecy about the Child Warrior. See, the Child Warrior—that’s you, Austyn—has a special magic that can withstand and destroy the power of the Red Wizard, that will prevent him from sending his death wish into you. You, and you alone can destroy him. That’s why learning your magic is so important.”
“What do the medallion and the sword in the prophecy have to do with it?” Reina asked.
“Well, the medallion I believe provides a focus for the magic, while, um, the sword, I, uh, think, will actually destroy the Red Wizard. Or, um, perhaps Austyn will use it in a spell that will destroy him.”
“You don’t even know!” Reina couldn’t believe what she was hearing. I’m not going to let him take us to fight the Red Wizard without knowing what we have to do! “Why are you taking us into danger if you don’t even know?”
The Gold Wizard reddened. “I know we need it, and by the time we have it, I’ll have deciphered more of the prophecy. Or, in getting it, we will learn what to do with it. I didn’t know how the medallion would identify the Child Warrior before I found it—that was revealed in the process.” He puffed up his chest, in an attempt, Reina guessed, to look like he knew more than he did. “Prophecies are just brief glimpses given to the seer—images, words, meant for those who follow them to decipher and ponder.”
All the same, Reina wouldn’t let him risk their lives like that until they knew what they were doing.
“But how do you know you read them the right way?” Austyn asked.
“Look, that’s enough talking,” the Gold Wizard said. “I need to go eat something.” He got up and walked across the room. “Where’d you put everything, anyway?”
Reina huffed. “Back in the cupboards where it belongs.” She followed him over, but he’d already found what remained of the food. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you to clean things up?”
He rolled his eyes at her. “We had servants. My mother was a lady, a cousin of the king himself.”
“That’s no excuse.” She looked him over as he ignored her and ate. “How old are you, anyway?”
He answered while chewing. “That’s not a polite question to ask an adult.”
Neither is talking with your mouth full. She glared at him until he cracked.
“I’ll be eighteen this fall, little girl. But age doesn’t matter—my father taught me loads of stuff.”
Reina refrained from mentioning the immaturity of saying how old he was going to be, rather than how old he was. “You’re hardly grown! Why didn’t the Green Wizard come and find the Child Warrior instead—or is he a boy as well?”
The Gold Wizard waved his hands in the air, his face angry. “I’m the son of the Gold Wizard, and it’s my job to be the next Gold Wizard.” He banged his fist on the table, and his voice rose. “I’m taking down that murdering Red Wizard who slaughtered my family, and you, little girl—”
“Stop calling me that!” Fury at how the Gold Wizard’s pride had put Austyn in danger filled her.
Within moments, they were both yelling at each other at the top of their lungs. A triumphant shriek rent the air, and they both dropped silent. Claws scraped against the roof and door of the cottage, and the howling of snakewolves sounded eerily all around them. Reina and the Gold Wizard stared at each other in horror; they made a dash for Austyn and the trap door.
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Chapter Eight: More Trouble
As they raced through the dark tunnel, a crash behind them told Reina that the snake
wolves had entered the house. The trap door might stop them for a moment, but the harpies would be able to open it.
“Faster!” hissed the Gold Wizard. The same thought must have occurred to him.
He came to an abrupt stop at the end of the tunnel, and she crashed into his back. The Gold Wizard didn’t comment, just slammed his staff down until sunlight poured down, almost blinding them. A wrenching noise behind them, along with the clear call of the snakewolves, announced they had entered the tunnel.
Reina dragged Austyn up the steps, but he stumbled, unable to keep pace. She tripped on the last step, and they both fell; she held Austyn to her and rolled away. The Gold Wizard closed the door after them, and the ground shook. Reina scrambled to her feet. She heard the angry noise of the snakewolves trapped underground.
“This way,” gasped the Gold Wizard.
Reina grabbed Austyn’s hand, the Gold Wizard his other, and they dashed forward, half-dragging poor Austyn along. The trees grew hazy, and Reina’s side ached. When she thought she wouldn’t be able to keep up, the Gold Wizard slowed and peered around them. “I think we lost them.”
They slowed to a walk, and Reina held her aching side. After about half an hour, they emerged on a path. The Gold Wizard brightened. “I know this place. We go this way, west, and we’ll be at the Green Wizard’s house in no time.”
Austyn leaned against Reina, and she sensed his exhaustion. The Gold Wizard wiped his brow. “We have to keep going, in case they pick up our trail. Once we get to the Green Wizard’s, we can rest.”
Reina nodded, too tired to speak, and took Austyn’s hand again. The Gold Wizard started down the path, but she couldn’t keep up with his pace anymore, and Austyn stumbled next to her. “Be strong, Austyn—we can do it,” she said, although she felt like sitting down and giving up.
“I can’t, Reina, I’m too tired.”
She paused to consider him. His red face and tear-stained eyes stared up at her, and he looked ready to collapse. She had to find some way to keep him going.
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